Tuesday, October 2, 2012

There was once an era we now call the 90s, when Radio 104 (out of Hartford, CT) played good music and held a daylong onslaught of the best bands from around the country. This was onslaught was called 104fest. In those days, Sublime was intact, with lead man Bradley Nowell writing ballads mixing reggae, punk and hip hop.

Sadly, those days are long gone. In 1996, Bradley died from a heroin overdose, leaving a gaping hole in the music world. Thus, the band known as Sublime fell apart. In 2003, Radio104 sold out, flipping to R&B radio shows. It seemed that all good things had come to an end.

Having listened to Sublime as a young boy....having been to 104fest in the glory days... standing among a crowd of pumped up hippies at the old 104fest location... I felt like that boy again. I felt the glory days coming back to life. A fellow onlooker stopped after the opening song "Oh my god, he sounds just like Bradley." He was, of course, referring to Roman Ramirez, the new frontman for Sublime (now called Sublime with Rome.) Although Roman cracked his voice during the first note on stage, naked and exposed for all of Hartford to cringe at, he quickly recovered and sent chills down the backs of every long-time Sublime fan. Bradley's voice swept over crowd out of Rome's mouth, and every hippie there looked on with delight. It was eerily unbelievable how similar his voice sounded, so much so that I have described Rome as the reincarnation of Bradley (even though Rome was alive when Bradley died....)

Rome

The show, even with Rome's beautiful tenor and the nostalgia of days past, was not as amazing at is could have been. Bassist Eric Wilson dangled a cigarette out of his mouth throughout the entire show and seemed as if he'd rather be smoking something else, somewhere else. He even taped down the keys of his synth (producing a deafening pitch) just before leaving the stage at the end of the set, until the tech crew rushed on to ensure the speakers wouldn't blow.

Here are a couple videos of the opening of the set and the song "Let's Go Get Stoned"

As a last thought,

Dear Large-Boned Guy in the middle of the moshpit,
First, it is not acceptable to mosh to reggae.
Second, a mosh is supposed to be a communal coming together to toss our bodies and feel primal, NOT a chance for you to beat up preteen girls who happen to be around you.